Lebanese heroes who gave their lives on the altars of the nation also taught us that he who has faith in the nation, in liberty, and in the rights of its citizens will defend them with absolute vigor and most Honorable dedication, and will not fear any threats, threat of oppression, the loss of position or Property, or the disappearance of "Thyself" in a Fiery Syrian/Israeli Car BOMB, with CIA2's Blessing...aiding, abetting, covering-up, re-inventing disinformation to muddy the waters...

But even a quick dip into the comments left by readers on various Web sites reveals quite another reality.

Mr. Grass has struck a nerve with the broader public, articulating frustrations with Israel here in Germany that are frequently expressed in private but rarely in public, where the discourse is checked by the lingering presence of the past. What might have remained at the family dinner table or the local bar a generation ago is today on full display, not only in Mr. Grass’s poem, but on Web forums and in Facebook groups.

One word has surfaced consistently in such discussions: “keule,” which means club or cudgel. The charge of anti-Semitism aimed at Israel’s critics — and in the case of Mr. Grass, by bringing up his past as a member of the Waffen-SS — is widely viewed as a blunt instrument that silences debate, and in the process prevents Mr. Grass from making a point about the dangers of a first strike by Israel against Iran over its disputed nuclear program.

“Every time you speak out and say something that isn’t superpolitically correct, there is a 99 percent chance that you are regarded as right wing,” said Moritz Eggert, a composer based in Munich. Mr. Eggert posted his own musical interpretation of Mr. Grass’s poem with simplified lyrics on YouTube. “Israel, I love you, but don’t attack Iran,” he sings.

Mr. Eggert said he was trying to skewer both sides in the debate. While he said he did not like Mr. Grass’s poem, “it’s embarrassing the way the intellectuals try to paint him in the worst light possible.”

Mr. Grass’s critics hail mostly from the cultural and political elite, while his support appears to be far more broadly based — even if Mr. Grass is not himself seen as the best spokesman for that view, given his own Nazi past.

“The published opinions are all coming from the usual suspects,” said Claus Stephan Schlangen, one of the people behind a Facebook group formed in support of Mr. Grass’s poem. “People just don’t believe what the media is selling anymore.”

The group’s page, which had more than 3,500 Facebook “likes” as of Thursday evening, shows a dove and Mr. Grass with his trademark pipe superimposed over the colors of the rainbow. “We say no to a war of aggression against Iran,” the text reads. Mr. Schlangen said that he and the site’s other manager policed the comments for anti-Semitic remarks, but that they just as often removed threatening language from Israel’s supporters.

Mr. Schlangen said he understood that the condemnation of Mr. Grass was about “German sensitivities and German history,” but he argued that “our mandate is not to support Israel whatever it does, but instead to fight injustice wherever it appears, which can also be in Israel.”

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, personally rebuked Mr. Grass over the poem, and the interior minister declared Mr. Grass to be unwelcome in Israel and barred him from entering the country. On Thursday, Mr. Grass, who seems to be reveling in the attention, waded back into the fray, this time in prose instead of verse, writing an article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung that compared Israel to Myanmar and the former East Germany, the only other countries that have forbidden him entry.

Sharp criticism of Israel, particularly from the left, has long been a tradition among European intellectuals, and Mr. Grass’s poem caused little stir on the Continent outside of Germany. But political and scholarly elites here have more often resisted that trend, tending to see basic support for Israel as a German responsibility, if not a necessity, after the Holocaust.

But the public response to the furor over Mr. Grass’s poem suggests that that attitude is breaking down as World War II recedes into history. “In the populism you see surfacing on a large scale, the public is all behind Grass,” said Georg Diez, an author and journalist at the magazine Der Spiegel who has written critically of the poem.

More than a week after the publication of “What Must Be Said,” it was still the subject of significant discussion. In the Thursday issue of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, another critical commentary appeared, this time with the headline “He Is the Preacher With the Wooden Mallet.” And on Thursday night, the talk show host Maybrit Illner held yet another televised discussion, “Grass in the Pillory: Is Criticizing Israel Really Taboo?”

Germany has come a long way since World War II in its struggle to become an ordinary country. The Berlin Wall is gone, and east and west are unified. The country recently ended conscription, which was intended to force a break with the country’s militaristic past and provide a direct link between the military and society as a whole.

But the subject of Jews and the Holocaust remain fraught topics even today.

In Germany, as elsewhere in Europe and in the United States, the conflict with the Palestinians has earned Israel its share of detractors. And for Germans who internalized pacifism as the most important lesson of World War II, the aggressive language that Israel has directed at Iran has seemed alarming.

Peace activists in particular have rushed to Mr. Grass’s defense, saying they were glad that he had brought the subject of a first strike by Israel into the public discourse. “His voice carries significant weight here,” said Manfred Stenner, director of the German Peace Network in Bonn. “We have been saying for a long time that a political solution has to be found.”

Ze’ev Avrahami, an Israeli journalist and restaurateur in Berlin who has written about the Grass controversy for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, said that he had left Israel because he could not support his country’s policies in the West Bank and Gaza. But he said that he and Israeli workers at his restaurant, Sababa, in the chic Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood, have found the tone of the discussions disquieting.

“They are not allowed to say anything about Jewish people, and they will never say anything about Jewish people, but to say everything about Israel is O.K.,” Mr. Avrahami said. “It’s absolutely the new anti-Zionism for all....”

“Israel has earned criticism,” he said, and “on this level....”

Maxim Biller, a German writer and commentator who is Jewish, welcomed the more open debate. “Is it better to keep the lions in their cages, or does it make the lions more and more furious that one day they will jump out of their cages and do their thing?” Mr. Biller asked. “Maybe it’s very good that from time to time one of these old men opens his mouth, says something like this, and then people discuss it.”

“As a potential target of these people,” he said, “I’m quite happy that the elite is still defending some clear positions.”

Elie

It's so easy to forgive, so very hard to forget.....RIP

Elie

It's so easy to forgive, so very hard to forget.....RIP

With my Prayers, For Elie Hobeika

WITH MY PRAYERS, ALONE, YOU WILL REMAIN A"Mystery" in a COMA, and a vegetable Israel's comatose former prime assassinations minister, Ariel BUTCHER Sharon, was moved back to his desert HELL on Friday, leaving the secure hospital ward that has been his earthly HELL for almost five years, ZIOCONS said. Sharon, 82, will continue to receive my death wishes at Sycamore Farm, where as premier he would summon advisers to plan assassinations strategies such as US/Syria/Israel's January 24th 2002 assassination of popular Christian Politician Mr. Elie HOBEIKA...at the hands of Asef SHAWKAT's Goons and the infamous White House Murder INC,..... Felled by a stroke in January 2006, because of my intensive daily prayers....in revenge for the assassination of Mr. Elie HOBEIKA, and he will remain COMATOSE until I release him into a permanent HELL..., the BUTCHER of Sabra Shatila and the 82 Lebanon war left behind an often jittery Jewish state that has since LOST two wars while charting an uncertain course in U.S.-sponsored FAKE talks with the Palestinians.... .

http://hobeika.blogspot.com/

قدر العظماء

قدر العظماء أن يمضوا شهداء
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all, and that's Elie's Legacy."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"EVERYTHING you know is "said" to be "WRONG"
"The Truth IS STRANGER than fiction."
"The Truth is ALWAYS the FIRST CASUALTY OF WAR."
"OFFICIAL LIES are ALWAYS the BIGGEST LIES OF ALL."
"The more things change, the more they STAY THE SAME."

Elie Hobeika -

Elie HOBEIKA

RIP all 4 Heroes

وعــــد إيلي حبيقة

وعــــد إيلي حبيقة---------------------

Jesus Christ wants to come into your life.

Only He can be your true satisfaction.

The Bible says that "God so loved this

world (all of us) HE gave His only Son

(Jesus) that whoever believes in Him

should not perish but have eternal life."

To believe in Jesus is to believe that

He is The Son of God and to give

yourself to Him completely.

Read the Bible and pray daily.This is the only way to overcome evil.

Remember there is a Heaven to gainand A REAL HELL TO AVOID.

WE WILL LIVE FOREVER SOMEWHERE.

ONLY THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF JESUS

CAN CLEANSE AWAY SIN.

May The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,

The Love of God and The Fellowship of

The Holy Spirit be with you.

ELIE, Mitri, Walid, Phares.

RIP

HK, Phares, Walid, Mitri.

Lebanese Heroes.

Elie Hobeika - HK. A Lebanese HERO

HK

Elie Hobeika - HK. A Lebanese Hero.

HK

Elie Hobeika

HK

ST

ELIE HOBEIKA

ELIE HOBEIKA

PZ

RC

WIKI

Core2

About Me

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